My Approach to Therapy

I am an actively engaged therapist and my therapy approach is practical, goal oriented and mindfulness based. I practice with the belief that therapy can be a rich and vital exploration into understanding the deepest parts of ourselves: the parts we cherish as well as the parts we want to change. While you may be experiencing anxiety or depression or losing your temper too much, I regard these emotions as problems in living rather than medical conditions. Therapy is about your path, not about your pathology. So, not only solving the problems you may bring to therapy is important, but also how to create more personal satisfaction with your life as you live it day to day. I regard it as my job to help you access the resources and wisdom you possess in abundance to help you get what you want from working with me. Like most therapists, I hope to create a safe and comfortable atmosphere to discuss your concerns.

I will welcome happiness for it enlarges my heart;

yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul.

I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due;

yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge.

Og Mandino

As I have worked with various emotional issues over the years, it has become apparent that processes that include the body, in addition to talking, are very useful. Two examples of mind-body processes that everyone will be familiar with are relaxation and breathwork. To be technical about it, I have much training in mind-body therapies such desensitization, somatic experiencing and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Other therapy modalities I have found to be very complimentary are mindfulness-based stress reduction and Dialectical Behavior Therapy. The bottom line is most people find therapy work that includes the mind as well as the body to be both powerful and effective.

On another note, my work with clients has been greatly influenced by the findings of neuroscience information on how the brain (nervous system) actually works to bring about change: to bring about healing. For example, research on heart rate variability shows that when we are balanced and able to access feelings of love, appreciation and gratitude, our heart rhythms are regular and balanced. Our heart rate is coherent and harmonious. In therapy we seek to produce a nervous system that is stable, balanced and coherent. Can we react to the difficulties in our lives with greater resilience and flexibility by cultivating gratefulness?

Another finding is that as we approach negative emotions to work with them, rather than avoiding them, something happens called a "left shift" that results in a change to positive rather than negative emotions. Once you have experienced this phenomena, working with negative emotions becomes a process to look forward to. Then therapy is not about the pain, but is about the gain which in this case is about feeling good.